Growing horticultural crops was never this lucrative. An empty plot of land notified by Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) in Geddalahalli village on Hennur Main Road, saw a sudden spurt of green two months ago. Now, it’s a horticultural nursery.
Sources say the plot of land has been left out in the re-modified scheme for the Arkavati Layout. In at least 15 such cases, land has been left out of the re-modified scheme even as thousands of Arkavati Layout allottees have been left in the lurch. Reason: they are nursery lands.
Misusing a 2005 Karnataka High Court order, later upheld by the Supreme Court in 2010, land developers have repossessed land that was notified for the layout in 2004. Nursery lands are one of the six grounds, laid down by court, on which land notification for the layout can be cancelled. “Prime land worth crores of rupees is being taken by developers by merely planting some saplings or even keeping pots to just show it as a nursery,” said G. Shivaprakash, president of Arkavati Layout Allottees’ Association. This is in violation of the 2005 HC order that directed BDA to consider pre-2003 status of land for cancellation of land acquisition notification. While the government has defended the re-modified scheme, leaving out 983 acres of land from the final notification of 2004, quoting a Supreme Court order of 2010, many violations using the court order as a facade have now come to light.
